Protesters vowed a new round of demonstrations in New York on Thursday after a grand jury decided not to charge a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man on Staten Island.
National civil rights leaders pledged to release a longer-term “2015 action plan” on Thursday morning to address excessive force by law enforcement and police accountability one day after the grand jury cleared New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner during an arrest attempt in July.
Garner’s wife, Esaw Garner, on Thursday rejected the condolences offered by Pantaleo after he was cleared in the 43-year-old man’s death. In a video of the incident on a Staten Island sidewalk, the father of six is heard repeatedly gasping “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” as he is being restrained by police.
“The time to apologize or have any remorse … would have been when my husband was screaming he couldn’t breathe,” Esaw Garner told NBC’s “Today” show.
Pantaleo had expressed his condolences to Garner’s family in a statement, saying, “It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner.”
